Zephyr the West Wind

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Large scale oil on canvas paintings by Tasmanian artist R.J. Alexander “celebrating the complexity and beauty of flora.” Alexander’s aim is to challenge the viewer to see the beauty of nature as a bee or insect would.

Zephyr (Zephyrus) in Roman (and Greek) mythology was the personification of the west wind and the bringer of light spring and early summer breezes.

In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and of the season of spring. A symbol for nature, flowers and fertility.

The Roman goddess of flowers (Flora) and the personification of the west wind (Zephyr) were very popular subjects for painters and sculptors throughout the history of art – including Botticelli, Brueghel the Elder, and Giambattista Tiepolo.

R.J.Alexander‘s exhibition Zephyr the West Wind are large scale oil on canvas paintings celebrating the complexity and beauty of flora. Alexander’s aim is to challenge the viewer to see the beauty of nature as a bee or insect would. As a powerful urge, a survival instinct. To show an object in nature that we see as small and merely pleasing to the senses as the sole repository of our every urge. Urges we must sate for the good of the hive even if it means our death.

A flower is beautiful but it the result of a war over millions of years. A war of survival. Humanity believes it is the master but the complex relationship a flower has with its environment reveals a power and magic. Its every colour and scent and form perfectly aligned with a function. The flower uses insects and bees and humans to propagate and spread its seed. It is this power and beauty and majesty that R.J. Alexander would like to convey in his paintings.